Before he ever set foot on the court Tuesday night in Denver, Damian Lillard had already earned the reputation as one of the best clutch shooters basketball has ever seen. With series-ending buzzer beaters over the Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder, Lillard has become one of basketball's most feared late-game performers.
But what happened Tuesday wasn't just another Dame Time episode. This was instant canon. We will be talking about this 55-point performance for decades. It was both unprecedented and unbelievable. Simply put, what Lillard did down the stretch Tuesday, even in a losing effort, was arguably the greatest single-game shooting performance the NBA has ever seen. Check out these two facts: